晶圓代工如何擴張在手機晶片市場的占有率： 台積電個案研究

Abstract

半導體代工業已經在半導體產業中，占有舉足輕重的地位。因為半導體代工業的存在，使得無晶圓廠的積體電路設計公司，得以與整合元件製造公司(IDM)競爭並蓬勃發展。半導體代工業和無晶圓廠的積體電路設計公司相輔相成，都穫得比整體半導體工業更高的成長率。然而，時至今日，大部分的設計公司，都已經使用晶圓代工的產能。因此，晶圓代工業若是想要持續較高的成長速度，勢必要從整合元件製造公司的手中分一杯羹才行。 在從整合元件製造公司尋找新的需求時，需求的量和需求外包的可能性，是主要的考量因素。有足夠的量，才足以提供晶圓代工業所需的成長率。整合元件製造公司有較高的外包意願，才容易在短、中期內，產生足夠外包的量。以產品線來分析，手機的晶片是其中的首選。因為一年數億隻的市場需求，可以創造出數以百萬片計的晶片需求。而手機成本縮減的要求，則使得晶圓製造外包，變成一個主要的選項。也因此，本篇論文將聚焦在手機所需要的晶片上，以期為晶圓代工提供更多的成長動能。 然而，晶圓代工的業者，要具備什麼樣的技術能力、服務平台、和行銷策略，才能取得這些龐大的訂單? 本研究內容主要是藉由個案研究以及專家訪談來研究晶圓代工業行銷策略，以取得手機相關的晶圓需求。個案內容則是以台積電做為晶圓代工的代表業者，因為台積電在晶圓代工業者中排名第一。經由本研究我們發現一個新的晶圓代工行銷策略，可以讓台積電將可以藉由其在先進製程技術上及服務平台上的優勢，擴大在手機晶片市場的占有率。當然，台積電在經濟規模與能力上的優勢，如巨額的資本投資在產能擴充和技術研發，承受客戶需求劇烈波動並持續獲利，都為台積電在爭取手機晶片代工市場時，提供無以倫比的競爭優勢。

Semiconductor foundry business plays a very important role in the semiconductor industry. With the help from semiconductor foundry industry, design house is able to compete with Integrated Device Manufacturing (IDM) companies and prosperous. Working together, both semiconductor foundry industry and fables design house can grow faster than the whole semiconductor industry. However, nowadays most of the design houses have been using the capacity from pure play foundry companies. Therefore, foundry industry has to attract the business from the IDM companies in order to maintain the high growth speed. The major factors to be considered in getting business from IDM companies include volume and the possibility to outsourcing. Only business with big enough volume can support the semiconductor foundry industry with significant growth momentum. However, we should focus on the segments that IDM companies are more willing to outsource. Focusing on the right segments can bring the desired volume to semiconductor foundry industry in short-term to mid-term period of time. Considering the tremendous product lines, chips in cellular phone have been the top choice. There are several hundred of millions cellular phone demand per year. Such demand needs the support of several million of wafers. Besides, the driven for low cost cellular phone also makes the wafer outsourcing a major option. Therefore, this study will focus on the chips for cellular phone in order to provide the continuous growth momentum for semiconductor foundry business. However, semiconductor foundry companies need to understand what kind of technical capability, service platform, and marketing strategy is essential to get such huge business. This study is to discuss the semiconductor foundry marketing strategy for cellular phone chips through a case study of TSMC and interview with experts in semiconductor industry. TSMC is picked up since it is the number one player in the semiconductor foundry industry. Through this study, we find a new marketing strategy that can enlarge TSMC’s market share in cellular phone baseband chipset. The strategy is set by leveraging TSMC’s advantages in advanced technology leadership and integrated service platform. Of course, TSMC’s advantages in good financial conditions and large production scale also provide the weapons that other competitors can not match. With good financial conditions, TSMC can keep investing huge capital spending in building new capacity and developing advanced technologies. The large production scale from different product segments help TSMC to maintain profitable when some segments have drastic drop in demand.